Can you explain the process of selling logs or standing timber to Hull Forest Products?
First we make sure the seller has a copy of our log price sheet. Then we send a forester over to make sure there is a truck load worth of logs and that a log truck can access the logs. If the logs are spread out, enabling the forester to get a good look at them and scale them properly, the forester may tally and grade them on site. This cannot be done if the logs are already in a pile, however, in which case the load will be scaled when it arrives at the mill.
For purchases of standing timber, the landowner typically contacts us, and we discuss their forest management goals and financial goals. Then our forester will inventory the lot for species and volumes and work up a harvest estimate. At this point we give the landowner a proposal with prices per thousand board feet for the trees which are to be cut. If the landowner then wants to proceed with a harvest, we flag the property boundaries, mark the trees to be harvested, and propose a timber sale agreement to the landowner.
Do you plant trees after a harvest?
Because forests in our region regenerate so quickly after a cut, it is simply not necessary to plant seedlings after a harvest. Desirable seedlings grow naturally because the act of harvesting itself leaves a source of seed and creates the needed light conditions for seedling growth. On rare occasions we have planted after a harvest, in situations where a species is growing on soils that are not suitable for it and the intent was to seed in a different species.
Are tree tops left on the ground after a harvest?
Most of the time, yes. After a tree is harvested for its timber and smaller size limbs are utilized for firewood, the top is left. Tops, along with the annual leaf litter that falls in the forest, act to improve the soil. The presence of tops also discourages deer browsing of seedlings and simultaneously provides a source of food for deer, who like to feed on the mushrooms that sprout on tops when snow gets deep in winter. In whole tree chipping operations, some harvested tree tops are ground into wood chips along with small diameter pulpwood, while others are left behind to rot down. Chipping the tops leaves a neater appearance in the forest immediately following the harvest; however, the same appearance can be had after a few years when tops left behind have decomposed.
What information will I learn by having a forest management plan?
When our foresters put together a forest management plan for a client, they meet with the landowner(s), walk the property, mark boundaries, examine forest stand types, soils, water, and plant and wildlife on the property. Our forester will prepare maps of the property for your use. The plan takes into account the landowner’s goals and interests, the current state of the forest, and the forest’s potential.
What steps have you taken for forest conservation?
We are an industry leader in forest conservation, a winner of the Aldo Leopold Award for our role in keeping forests as forests in New England, and our family forestland is certified by the American Tree Farm System. You can read about our forest conservation projects here. Because we have opted for conservation restrictions that prohibit development, our forestland will forever remain a productive, working landscape that provides jobs and timber as well as plant and wildlife habitat, scenic viewsheds, carbon sequestration, open space, and recreational opportunity.
In addition, we practice forest management on over 30,000 acres of public and private client land in New England; with our help, these clients are maintaining their land as productive forests, and these trees are performing all of the miracles that trees do every day to clean our air and freshen our environment.